Pinging for Problems

Problems that can slow traffic through a network can be a headache for businesses.

Problems that can slow traffic through a network can be a headache for businesses. IP Metrics Software Inc. last week rolled out an updated product designed to find those problems quickly.

The Euless, Texas, company at NetWorld+Interop introduced its NIC Express 3.0 software driver for load balancing traffic across two or more network adapters.

The software, which works with any major network adapter, can look deep into the network to identify trouble spots and then reroute traffic around them.

"We send a watchdog packet from one port in our array on a system out onto the network," said CEO Dave Wilbanks. "If it doesnt return, we can ping multiple points. Based on where we are able to get to, plus the information from the watchdog packet, we can narrow down where the fault is and how best to fail over."

The latest version improves on the earlier ones performance and adds support for IEEE 802.3ad port trunking. Its available now for $395 per server.